Touch screens are used in many applications. For example, lottery terminal manufacturers may provide lottery game terminals to retail establishments, such as casinos, gaming centers, and the like. Often, these terminals include monitors that have been modified to include touch screens, which may be easy to use and attractive to some gaming customers. Over time, and as a result of servicing the gaming terminals, the touch screens may exhibit a decrease in precision and may require realignment, resealing and calibration. Component aging may also cause a decrease in precision. Similar adjustments may be needed in other touch screen application areas, e.g. ATMs. ticket dispensers, information kiosks, etc. However, particularly for gaming machines, a well calibrated touch screen is desirable in order to keep a game player's interest and continued play. A well calibrated touch screen also decreases player confusion and frustration.
Different types of touch screens may be used to modify monitors that are lacking touch screen capabilities. For example, 4 or 5 wire resistive touch screens, capacitive touch screens, surface acoustic wave touch screens, near field imaging touch screens, infrared touch screens, or pen/stylus compatible touch screens may be used. The various types of touch screens have associated advantages and disadvantages, such as amount of resolution, susceptibility to interference, and expense. Touch screens may be fitted to a variety of monitors and displays, both analog and digital, such as, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, flat square tube monitors, flat panel displays or liquid crystal displays (plasma displays), active or passive matrix displays, or thin film transistor displays. Alternatively, the touch screen components may be integrated into the monitor and/or its associated CPU.
For example, a resistive touch screen may be applied to the front of a monitor. A resistive touch screen may include a conductive layer, a separation layer including a sensor arrangement, and a resistive layer. The touch screen itself may be adhered to the front of the monitor using a transparent adhesive and additional security may be provided with electrical tape. The sensor arrangement within the touch screen may be coupled to devices that facilitate the transfer of information from the touch screen sensor arrangement. For example, a processor, which controls the monitor, may be used. Other devices that may be used include, for example, a controller and a software driver.
When the surface of the resistive touch screen is disturbed, a voltage change occurs in the area of the disturbance. The controller then registers the position of the voltage change as, for example, a set of x and y coordinates. These coordinates are compared to the coordinates of the display, and any appropriate function may then be carried out. For example, the touch coordinates may correspond to a “Select Game” virtual button on the display, in which case, a touch in the area of the button would cause a list of games to appear on the screen.
Over time, the accuracy of the touch screen may diminish due to environmental influences, component aging, misuse, ordinary wear and tear, or accidental damage. Touch screens are also susceptible to electrical noise, or unwanted electrical or electromagnetic energy.
Therefore, the position at which the touch screen is touched may be incorrectly identified as a different position on the touch screen and/or the underlying monitor screen. This may cause the wrong information to be activated on the underlying monitor screen and cause frustration for a user, e.g. the lottery player using a lottery gaming machine.
In order to correct a touch screen which is experiencing inaccuracy or drift, the touch screen may be calibrated. However, improper scaling or alignment may be a cause of touch screen inaccuracy, despite proper calibration techniques. Conventional calibration techniques include using manufacturer provided software programs that require the user to touch and hold several target points on the touch screen in accordance with the calibration software. However, if the active area of the monitor to which the touch screen is applied is improperly scaled, inaccuracies may result. For example, the active area of the touch screen may be smaller than the active area of the monitor, therefore, any subsequent adjustment to the active area of the monitor may cause inaccuracy. It is desirable for any adjustments to the active area of the monitor to be consistent and for the active areas of similarly manufactured gaming terminals to remain within a certain range of sizes, or, ideally, to be uniform. If the active area of the monitor is too small, it may be difficult for some players to see, however, if it is too large, the touch screen become unreliable and some information may not appear at all.
Therefore, the present invention provides a device used to easily and consistently scale the active area of the monitor and a method of using the same.